Back in 1988 on Maayafushi Island (Maldives) I not only knew nothing about photography in general but even less how to get known or even famous with it. I had borrowed a Minolta 7000 (the first DSLR film camera with autofocus at the time) and a 50mm lens from my father and only had two rolls 35mm film with me. But since this resulted in a few really good shots, I wanted to pursue this further.

After my first holiday in the Maldives, the technology of photography developed so rapidly that, looking back, I cannot believe how innocently naive we all were back then. At the same time as I was learning to take photos with my first film camera, professional photographers in Japan were already using the very first digital cameras. A technique that I strictly rejected until 2004 Now, of course, one could argue that the period between 1988 and 2004 was not a long one. However, 16 years is an eternity for a young adult. And in these 16 years I learned to take analogue photos.

I certainly never was the great professional photographer I thought I was, but I still sell my photos on Getty Images New York, which I'm a little proud of. But my real adventure started in late 2005. One day I was sitting with friends in a well-known beer brewery in Vienna and pondering what would be necessary to invite myself into the wide world as a photographer. Inviting because I wanted to photograph them all over the world and make a name for myself as a professional. That was the demand I had on myself at that time. I looked up to the likes of Ansel Adams, and I sure could publish landscape photography books like Art Wolfe.

At that time I had only met one really famous photographer personally in real life and that was Herwarth Voigtmann, who became world famous with his underwater photos from mirrored Uvex sunglasses and the shocking photos were big sharks eat bloody fishes from his mouth. The fact that this was photographed by Leni Riefenstahl may have helped, but that's a completely different story. Since my English was very poor at the time, I asked my friends to help me set up a professional-looking email in which I would later apply to various 5-star game lodges in Africa to become a professional photographer for commercials. The e-mail was written quickly and so I sent the e-mail to various game lodges. Unexpectedly, I got an immediate response and was also invited by several of the most well-known.

I only had to pay for the flight myself, the rest was free. And that in hotels like a Mala Mala, where even back then in 2007 a room cost more than $1000 per night. As a colleague of mine used to say: you can't buy courage, you either have it or you don't. I had courage and not fear. However, it wasn't easy to convince my employer to allow me the 8 weeks vacation I needed for my adventure. If Nikon Austria hadn't sponsored me at the time and equipped me with all the necessary equipment, the trip would never have been possible, because the 50kg of photo equipment alone required a business class flight ticket. But having never been to Africa and certainly not being a professional at photographing wild animals from an open-top Land Rover, it took a fair amount of determination on site to convince my employers that I was the right man.